September 12, 2013

Thursday Hillary Bash - Chuck Todd Missed The Ball

Back in August Mediaite reported NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd was bemoaning the Hillary Clinton mini-series. Except he missed the obvious while he was busy fretting over what impact it would have on NBC News.

On Morning Joe Thursday morning, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd bemoaned his network’s proposed NBC miniseries on Hillary Clinton, which, though it has not yet been written, has already raised criticism of a conflict of interest between NBC Entertainment and NBC News, including an ultimatum from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to drop the project or lose any 2016 GOP debates.

“This mini series is a total nightmare for NBC News,” Todd said. “There’s this giant firewall, we have nothing to do with it, we know that we’d love probably to be as critical, or whatever it is going to be, if it comes out. But there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Distancing NBC News from NBC entertainment misses the point. Frankly nobody cares if the issue comes from one division of NBC or another. What matters is that it is free press for a likely presidential candidate in the midst of campaign season. That's wrong on so many levels - fairness, electoral rules, and the dangers of groupthink to name a few. But Todd remains preoccupied with taking flak for it.

“We’re going to only own the negatives,” he continued. “Whether it’s negative because it’s the Clinton people are upset that it’s too tough on them, or negative because the Republicans think it’s this glorification of her—no matter what, only we are going to own it, because people are going to see the peacock and NBC and see NBC News and think: ‘Well, they can’t be that separate.’”

Chuck - where is your journalistic integrity? What about all of the aforementioned issues with the mini-series? Care to comment on those? If you don't the reputation of NBC (Nobody But Clinton) is harmed far more than the damage caused by airing the documentary in the first place. There's no counterbalance from NBC and there's not even a critical review of the action of airing it. there certainly is no evidence of even-handedness. All we are left with is "Don't blame us."

We won't blame NBC news then, but don't expect us to trust you as a news source either.